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![\"MIKE](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4158883_web1_260421-Sherbrook-Pool-0007.jpg\")
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MIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n
The City of Winnipeg has locked the Sherbrook Pool during business hours, requiring visitors to be buzzed in.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has become such a concern that if we lose staff, and staff don\u2019t want to work at that location any more, it could mean shutting the doors. So, it\u2019s time to find a way to make sure that everyone is feeling safe in their workplace.\u201d<\/p>\n
A controlled entrance with a remote door release was installed at the 381 Sherbrook St. pool in mid-March as part of a security overhaul that also introduced swipe card access to staff areas within the facility, city spokesman Adam Campbell confirmed.<\/p>\n
He said numerous incidents have impacted staff and patron safety in recent years, \u201cincluding physically threatening behaviour, verbal threats, assault, as well as theft from and damage to vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s time to find a way to make sure that everyone is feeling safe in their workplace.\u201d<\/p>\n
The city received 19 reports of incidents in 2025, and 20 reports the previous year.<\/p>\n
\u201cNote that these are only the number of incidents that get reported \u2014 the actual number of incidents may be higher,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n
It is the only public pool in Winnipeg to have a controlled entrance, but Campbell said heightened security measures have been in place at other city facilities for several years, including the Magnus Eliason Recreation Centre on Langside Street and the Millennium Library downtown.<\/p>\n
Staff at the pool contacted representatives from the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 500 more than a month ago to voice concerns about security, union president Gord Delbridge said.<\/p>\n
The union was told intoxicated people were increasingly entering the facility and causing disruptions. Delbridge said some of the staff are young and were frightened both during the encounters and when leaving the facility at the end of their shifts.<\/p>\n
The union leader initiated the grievance process, but agreed to hold it in abeyance if the city demonstrated it was taking action.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s kind of where we are at now,\u201d Delbridge said, noting the union is now monitoring the workplace to ensure staff are satisfied with the bolstered security.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n The Sherbrook Pool is the only public pool in Winnipeg to have a controlled entrance.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s somebody\u2019s daughter who\u2019s working there, that\u2019s somebody\u2019s family member or partner, and you\u2019re not going to work to deal with that kind of stress and fear,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Judy Hasselfield encountered the facility\u2019s locked door Tuesday. The 75-year-old who lives in Wolseley has used the facility about three times a week for the past 20 years, and said she has occasionally seen people \u201ccamped out\u201d near the front entrance.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a scary place, except the neighbourhood itself is getting a little dodgy. The pool itself has always been extremely well-managed and I\u2019ve never felt (concerned),\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe staff are very friendly and informative. They seem to care about the neighbourhood and they seem to care about the people that are struggling, even when they\u2019re dealing with them.\u201d<\/p>\n Hasselfield said she has no issue with the security upgrades and hopes they put staff at ease.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s absolutely vital to keep this pool in the community, not only for older people like me, but also for youth. I think it is still a safe place.\u201d<\/p>\n Josh Hollett, another patron, said he has been visiting the pool once or twice a week over the past decade. Like Hasselfield, he has no problem buzzing in through the secure entrance.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s fine with me if that\u2019s what they\u2019ve got to do,\u201d the 43-year-old said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely vital to keep this pool in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n Marianne Cerelli \u2014 a former NDP MLA and activist who advocated for the preservation of the pool in the mid-2010s when it required structural renovations and was under threat of closure \u2014 said the safety concerns at the facility are emblematic of larger issues throughout the city.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is social collapse and we think that we can deal with it by just installing more and more security,\u201d Cerelli said. \u201cIt\u2019s a Band-Aid on a hemorrhage.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Judy Hasselfield, 75, has been going to the Sherbrook Pool for more than 25 years. <\/p>\n Decades of under-resourcing for social programs have created an underclass of people who languish in poverty, addiction and trauma with little hope of improvement, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel for the staff that are there. I can understand that they feel threatened. Some of those neighbourhoods are getting more and more rough. However, we have to look at a full range of ways to address the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n Coun. Vivian Santos, chair of the community services committee, said all levels of government must work in concert to confront the root issues contributing to the security concerns plaguing the pool and elsewhere.<\/p>\n \n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t \u201cWe are seeing it all across the city.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are seeing it all across the city,\u201d said Santos (Point Douglas). \u201cWe are in that type of climate and environment right now where there\u2019s a lot of social disorder, and it is unfortunate that we have to do some of these security measures\u2026 but I think it\u2019s important these measures are in place until we can find a more positive path moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n The most recent city data available shows approximately 38,900 people used the pool in 2024.<\/p>\n The city\u2019s 2024-27 multi-year budget included direction for the public service to report back on a four-year review of the pool\u2019s usage, revenue and operating costs. That report is anticipated in fall 2027, ahead of the next multi-year budget process, Campbell said.<\/p>\n tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Tyler Searle Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press\u2019s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic\u2019s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022.\u00a0Read more about Tyler<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber<\/a>.<\/p>\n Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.<\/p>\n \t\t
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